The past ten years have been witness to a burgeoning interest in the possibility
of enhancing cognitive capabilities in children and adults. This growth is evident in schools, colleges, universities, and businesses, where attempts are being
made to develop and apply approaches to improve learning, thinking, and problem-solving abilities in students and personnel. The evidence is more than clear
that learning and thinking can be facilitated by intervention.

In addition, society has entered a postindustrial information age, where growth
and change are so rapid that in many fields as much as half of the information
can become outdated in as few as five years. Dynamic change of this magnitude demands that society look toward its educational and business communities to teach the types of skills that are considered essential in acquiring and
using information. It has been suggested that the main goal of education should
be to produce learners who have the skills and motivation to learn on their own
rather than merely produce learned individuals.

Rapid technological development with its attendant information explosion is
resulting in the business sector beginning to place a greater emphasis on the
enhancement of cognitive capabilities in its personnel. Thinking is coming to
be regarded as a major resource that can be tapped and used. It is because of
this that a much closer relationship is now being forged between educational
and business communities. This is especially true in the research and development of cognitive intervention programs.

The idea for this book emerged from a major international conference on
thinking that took place at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. The
organization of the conference involved close cooperation among university,

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